


Pance Week!

by mistyhollowdrummer



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Just Lots of fluffles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 12:04:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8488786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistyhollowdrummer/pseuds/mistyhollowdrummer
Summary: Welcome… Mere mortals… To the first ever Pance week… WHERE. We shall indulge in this rare ship. Feels man. Feels.Day 1: Date night! Day 2: Prank wars and dank memes! Day 3: Part of your AU! Day 4: Flash from the past! Day 5: Halloween if you please! Day 6: Oblivious to love! Day 7: Ignite their short circuits!These are to be taken any way I please, the rules say… The rules will regret giving me free rein. Let’s begin.





	1. Day 1: Date Night!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sooooooooo late on this, but Pance week was going on while I was in Japan, so I've just been writing for it! Now I'm finally uploading, and even though I'm behind and don't have all of them done, I really want to work these prompts to the best of my writing abilities!  
> So, with that being said, let's begin with Day 1! Date Night!  
> I really wanted to show some insecurities to this one, but I feel like I failed a bit on Lance's part. I also, however, wanted to show big brother Matt trying to be all tough. I also wanted big sis Allura. Hope I accomplished that at least. ;)

Pidge nearly dropped to her floor, laptop all but caught roughly in her hands when the doorbell rang. Her heart beat hard in a sudden bout of panic, her ears suddenly tuning in to the sounds from downstairs.

Voices. Hushed and relaxed, but no one she didn’t know. No one she _expected,_ and she was on high alert for a voice she expected.

“Katie!” She heard the all too familiar voice of her brother downstairs, calling for her to come down, but she couldn’t.

Not like _this_.

“Yeah…?” She opened her door and shouted into the empty hallway.

“Allura is here! Come on down!”

Oh no, no. That was asking too much of her right now.

“Come up here!” She shouted back.

“Katie, don’t be rude! Get down here!” Her mother voiced in a non-approving manner.

“I can’t!”

“Why…?” Matt asked.

Well, there was only one way to stop his prying behavior.

“It’s a girl thing!”

There was a pause.

“O-Oh…”

“Do you need help, honey?” Her mother asked, and that was when she heard footsteps, her mother coming up the stairs.

“No! I just need Allura up here!” With that she shut the door, her final thoughts on the subject.

No, her mom couldn’t come up here. Just Allura. Only Allura could see her right now.

She listened against the door. She heard more hushed voices, one of which she could make out as Allura by the polite manner she spoke and her soft accent. She heard more footsteps, and after a few minutes, a knock on her door.

“Pidge…?” She called out. The teen stepped away from her door, pulling her hood over her head.

“C-Come in…” She responded meekly. The door opened, a rush of blonde hair appearing and swaying as she stepped inside.

Allura had dressed down for being on Earth, a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, and to help blend in with the humans, she matched her skin tone closer to Pidge’s own, and made her hair blonde. She had become too well known, and she couldn’t be recognized right now when obviously she was needed elsewhere.

“Hey Pidge.” She greeted and shut the door behind her. Finally safe from prying eyes, her skin returned it’s natural hue, and the teen watched, mystified as her hair slowly turned silver.

“C-Could you lock the door? I don’t want my mom coming in…” Pidge pleaded with her and turned away, her hands hiding in her pockets.

“Of course…” The Altean agreed before the young teen heard the clicking of her door locking. “You sounded so upset over the transmission. Are you alright?”

The girl sighed heavily. Well, here went nothing.

“I… I’ve got a date with Lance tonight.” She admitted. She looked over her shoulder to see Allura tilt her head, a confused look on her face.

“I know. You told me earlier.” She said. “Do you not want to go on the date? Are you deciding against it?”

“No, that’s not it.” Pidge pulled a hand out of her pocket to rub at the back of her neck. “It’s just… I don’t know what to do.”

“What do you mean?” The woman asked as she sat down on her bed. A small tube suddenly rolled into her thigh, half capped and covered in something dusted in purple. She couldn’t place what it was, but she didn’t have the chance.

Pidge let out another heavy sigh, finally coming to terms that she needed to accept fate before turning around and pulling her hood down.

Allura’s eyes widened, trying to make sense of the red tint on Pidge’s lips, or the purple eyeshadow on her eyelids that looked like it had been smeared by black eyeliner. She wanted to laugh, but not at her. No, never at her. Just the idea that Pidge put on makeup was enough to make her smile.

“I can’t do that makeup thing…” The girl admitted in defeat.

“Oh Pidge…” She held out her hands, a warm smile spreading her cheeks as Pidge took them up and sat down on the bed beside her. Now she knew what that little tube was. It was lipstick, and judging by the mess on it, she hadn’t had an easy time putting it or the rest of her makeup on.

“I-I just thought I’d try, but this shit is hard! Those people in the tutorial videos are Gods, because this is science I just can’t get!” She growled, trying to rub the black liner off of her skin, but it wasn’t coming off. That explained why the eyeshadow looked so smudged.

“Well, if I were to be honest, that red is not a good color on you.” Allura smiled sheepishly before Pidge whacked her arm.

“It’s not funny! Besides, this was all my mom had in her drawer!” She picked up a compact and tossed it at the lipstick. “And this is like, seven shades _darker_ then I am!”

“Alright Pidge, take a deep breath.” The Altean told her and rubbed her arms gently. Pidge’s frown was enough to make her lips pull tight, worry edging into her emotions. “If it’s so frustrating, why were you doing it in the first place?”

“Because… Lance likes pretty girls… And I’m…” Pidge shrugged her shoulders, her head dropping low while her fingers began pulling at a loose thread from her duvet. “ _Not_. I’m just me…”

“What…?” Allura’s mouth almost dropped at the words coming from the teen. This wasn’t like her at all.

“Well you see how he drools over all of these pretty girls with pretty, long hair, and pretty and perfect make up. He just bends over backwards for a girl wearing a stinking bra…! I mean, I wear one, but I mean one bigger! I mean… Ugh, never mind…”

Pidge ran her hands through her tousled hair, a whine escaping her. This was all too much to process in one night. It had been on her mind for a week since Lance asked her out, but the repercussions of her answer weighed down on her hours ago, realizing that she, Pidge Gunderson, Aka Katie Holt, was going on a _date_ , as in an outing where two people in romantic relationships go out and spend time with one another, with Lance McClain, Aka Blue Paladin of Voltron, her partner in crime, and someone she’d been pining after for longer than she’d like to admit.

Why her anyway? She didn’t see why he’d want to go out with her. She was short, with short, poorly cut hair (Although she thought she did a pretty good job all things considering), big, brown eyes, a toothy grin, and a flat chest. She didn’t wear makeup, didn’t wear high heels, and if it weren’t for her mother, she’d never touch a dress or skirt again. She didn’t like girly things; she liked building robots, deviling into science, watching the stars at night and remembering fighting for the universe. She was what everyone considered a tomboy, and no one wanted a tomboy. She wasn’t at all his type, and if she were being painfully honest, he deserved something more than her tiny self.

Someone like Allura even.

“Well, maybe that’s true…” A hand came under her chin and lifted her face. Pidge gave her big, pouty eyes, but the woman smiled softly to her, her other hand touching her cheek. “But he picked you, didn’t he?”

“Huh…?”

“If Lance’s real type were big boobs and a whole bunch of pancake makeup, he would have never glanced at you, but he did. Do you know what that means?” She asked.

“That he has terrible taste?” Pidge guessed.

“That he wasn’t necessarily looking at you, Pidge. He was looking at _you_ , the real you. He looks at who you are as a person and likes every bit of it, the good and the bad, Katie Holt or Pidge Gunderson,” Allura lightly tapped at her cheek with a small laugh. “And for all of Lance’s character, it shows how much he really likes you, because he’s willing to look away from your human standards of pretty to be with you.”

Brown eyes looked to the ground, her heart aching.  

That wasn’t true, was it? Lance was willing to ignore pretty girls for… Her?

“And might I just say, I think you’re very pretty.” She continued on and rubbed some of the intense purple shimmer off of her cheek. “I just don’t think you know it yet. You’re too busy playing with your toys to see it.”

“… H-How do you know all of this stuff?” Pidge asked, her lips trembling. She felt like she was going to cry, and why? Because Allura was right?

She hated it when she was right.

“You remember how old I am, right?” Allura asked. Pidge chuckled, feeling weight lifting off of her shoulders. It felt a little easier to breathe, like she’d been reassured, even though she still had her doubts. Allura had to be right though. Lance would never bother with her if he didn’t like her, and he must have, even just a little.

“Thank you, Allura.” She said to her, rubbing at her eyes.

“Anytime, Pidge. I’m always a few lightyears away if you ever need me.” Again she laughed.

The Altean may have been nosy at times, may have annoyed her to no ends quite often, but when they were defenders of the universe, she was all she had for a woman figure. She was a mom so far away from her home, a sister she never had, and it helped to talk to her, even if her mom was right downstairs, but her mom wouldn’t get it. Her mom would gush all over her and talk about old times, and how was that going to help? She didn’t even know Lance, so there was no point in going to her.

“So why don’t you take that makeup off and just be Pidge now?” She asked. Pidge nodded her head in agreement, reaching for her mother’s bag to find something to take off the heavy makeup. There were wipes all the way at the bottom, and she used those to take off the smeared eyeshadow and crusty black liner. The red lipstick was the toughest, seeming to stain her skin, so she had to be careful of where it all went. She didn’t want her cheeks that color either. “You know…”

Pidge stopped after using up a second wipe, trying to clear her skin off of the dark foundation. She eyed the woman curiously as she picked up the container of purple eyeshadow, inspecting it closely.

“If you were to wear makeup, I would use just a little of this right here on your eyes, but just a little…” She told her. “The purple is actually very complimenting to your eyes.”

“Is it…?” Pidge asked, her head tilting curiously. She didn’t think it looked very good on her, but then again, she had seven layers of batter on her skin.

“Mhm. Here, let me show you.” Allura opened the little container and put some on her fingers. When she held out her hand, Pidge set the wipe down and closed her eyes. She felt the pressure of her cold fingers against her skin, against her eyes, before she quickly finished. “Now let me fix this.” Pidge opened her eyes as Allura began pulling the tangles from her hair, piecing it back together.

She winced a few times, but she knew she’d done a number on herself after panicking so much. She should have been grateful it wasn’t as bad as it was.

“There, much better.” The woman said and patted her shoulders. “Why don’t you look in the mirror and tell me what you think?”

The teen stood and slowly strode over to her mirror. She was afraid to look, afraid to see something similar to what she’d seen earlier, but she didn’t. In fact, she looked completely normal. The eyeshadow was very minimal, but enough to actually make her eyes open up a little. Without everything caked in the way, she looked so much better, no longer a mess.

“Oh…” She said and sighed in relief. “I look okay now.”

“You’ve always looked fine, Pidge. I think you just got a little self-conscious.” Allura came up from behind her and rested her hands on her shoulders, giving her a smile of reassurance.

“Thanks Allura…” Pidge said and leaned back into her. “I’ve never done anything like this before, so I’m glad you’re here knowing what to do. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You do have a mother, Pidge.”

“Yeah, but she gets all mushy!”

* * *

Matt’s lips pulled into a tight frown, his eyes narrowing at Lance as he stood in the doorway, looking too cool in his big coat and jeans, hair seeming to sit just perfectly on his head.

“Hey Matt,” Lance greeted with his lady killer smile.

“Hi.” Matt said bitterly.

“Is Pidge- er… Is Katie ready?” He forgot that her family didn’t call her Pidge, so he tried hard to call her by her real name when he was around Matt or Sam. He had yet to meet her mother though.

“I think so. Come on in.” Matt said curtly and left the door open for the teen to walk in. Lance shut it behind him, standing close to the door and looking at the floor. He wasn’t sure if they took their shoes off when they entered their home or not, and he didn’t want to be rude and assume they didn’t when they very easily did. He didn’t see any shoes set aside, but he couldn’t be too sure. “Katie!”

Lance jumped when Matt yelled; he hardly ever yelled.

“Your dork is here!” He called up the stairs, his eyes glaring at Lance from the side.

“Okay!” Her reply came from upstairs. Lance chuckled under his breath. He didn’t know they were the type to yell across the house. Both of them seemed so conservative at times, but he didn’t know Matt on a personal level, and Pidge? Well, that was his goal. He really wanted to get to know her, hence the date.

They knew each other on levels people would never understand. That’s what happened when people risked their lives together to save the universe, but he wanted to know all the little things about her. About Katie. He wanted to know her on a different level, like her favorite music, movies, or books. He wanted to know if she was the type of person who stayed up late and slept in in the morning; they would have never known due to their strict schedules on the ship. He wanted to know if she preferred going out with friends or staying at home.

He wanted to know Katie Holt, what made her tick. He wanted to know everything about her.

He was glad he was wearing his coat. It hid the subtle shivers he had, both from the cold and his nervousness. He didn’t want to admit being nervous, but it was his first date with Pidge. Granted, they were going to the movies and coming back, but still. There would be time before and after the movie for talking. He couldn’t mess this up with his usual flirty, quirky, or what Matt called him, dork-like banter.

“Alright, so listen,” Matt began. Lance cocked his head, eyebrows raised in confusion when the brunette turned to him and pointed a finger.

“Yeah…?” He sounded questionably.

“Katie is eighteen, and she’s never been with anyone before. She’s my little sister, and so help me, you touch her in any way, I’ll end you.” He threatened and wagged his finger. “I’ve been a prisoner long enough to know how to hide a body!”

“Matt, just stop.” Pidge told him as she walked down the stairs, Allura close behind.

Lance chuckled, remembering that protective, older brother side to him the first time they met. All Lance had done was smile in her direction after a comment she made towards him, and instantly his big brother radar went haywire. If it weren't for the drugs running through his system, he probably would have landed one of those punches on Lance too, but he was thankful it hadn't come down to that.

As he looked over to her, vaguely recognizing Allura behind her, who'd once again taken up her human identity, he was surprised into a wide eyed silence. He wasn't used to seeing Pidge so neatly dressed, so carefully coordinated to look like she hadn't simply pulled something from her closet. She wore a green turtle neck sweater covered up by a vest, her legs covered in a pair of navy colored leggings. Her boots came up mid-calf, but he vaguely wondered if there were inserts in them. She seemed a little taller today than she normally did. Her hair was brushed out of her face, minus the one strand of hair that kept falling out from behind her ear, and on her eyes... Was she wearing makeup?

Pidge knew what makeup was?

Now he felt like hadn't tried at all. He’d kept it simple so neither of them would feel pressured into looking good in front of the other, but now he felt like he just hadn’t tried enough.

"Wow..." He breathed in awe. Pidge's cheeks instantly flushed a dark red color, but before she could comment on how he himself looked, her brother spoke up.

"Alright, so we're setting some ground rules here." Matt's arm wrapped around Pidge's shoulders, pulling her close so Lance couldn't get too close to her. "No touching, no kissing, no holding of the hands, no drinking, smoking, or space travel. Katie, that one is at you."

"Hey, Hunk and Keith said they wanted to go visit Allura. It wasn't just me." The teen remarked with a frown. 

"Regardless, that isn't happening tonight! No taking your lions for a joy ride and don't talk to strangers!" Matt relented, annoyance in his little sister and her antics obvious. 

"Alright already," Pidge gave in, pushing him away to stand by Lance. The teen felt she wasn't done just yet, judging by the mischievous glint in her eyes and the small smirk starting to take shape on her lips. What was this twisted child thinking? "... So I shouldn't come back pregnant then, right?"

If Matt hadn't suddenly turned red, and with the illusion of his head exploding almost a possibility, Lance would have had time to gawk at her sudden words. Pregnant? Her? And with his...?

His mind couldn't even go there. 

"Listen here-!"

"Matt, calm down," A woman spoke up, stepping into the room with Mr. Holt standing beside her. 

"Yeah, that's my job." He openly joked, a smile on his lips as he reached a hand out to Lance. "Good to see you again, my boy."

"Nice to see you as well, Mr. Holt." Lance greeted, his usual charming self. "You're looking a whole lot better."

"And feeling it." He agreed. "Lance, I don't believe you've met my wife yet." Sam said as he motioned to his wife. Now Lance could see where Pidge and Matt got their looks from. The brains were from their father, obviously, but both of them looked just like her. What with their big brown eyes, copper hair, soft and subtle pale skin. 

Oh yes. This was indeed the Holt residence he was in. 

"It's so nice to finally meet you." His wife beamed, shaking Lance's hand. "Katie talks about you all of the time."

"Mom..." Pidge grumbled under her breath, her annoyance showing. 

"Oh look at how cute you two look! Such a perfect little pair."

"Mom..." Matt joined in, though he wasn't going to hide it.

"Wait, wait! Let me get a picture!"

"Mom...!" Pidge groaned, hiding her face in Lance's jacket. 

"Leave them alone, sweetie. It's their first date after all." Mr. Holt told her, restraining her gently from running to get a camera. 

"And their last..." Matt grumbled.

"Would you two stop already?" Sam berated him and his wife before turning back to the two of them. "Go on you guys. Have a wonderful time."

"Thanks dad..." Pidge couldn't have been happier to know her dad was on her side for a change. She figured the behavior Matt exhibited would come from her dad, not him. Her mom's behavior, however, was very much guessed. 

"Have a good time tonight," He told her as he let them out. 

"And don't drink anything he gives you!" Matt called after them. His sister turned around and stuck her tongue out at him, but quickly stopped when she saw Allura quietly following them out the door, a small smile on her lips. 

"Thanks Allura," She said quietly, but Lance acted like he couldn’t hear the small exchange. 

"It's not a problem." She assured her and waved as they began going off in separate directions. "You two have a great time, okay?"

"Will do." Lance called after her, his hand finding Pidge's to hold on to.

"Hey, I said no touching!" The teen tried to hold back his laughter, not so much at Matt's consistent yelling, but his sister's reaction to it. It was then that it was followed by a cry of pain, a sudden, "Ouch mom, stop pulling!" Coming from him as he was yanked back into the house. 

"Yeah, that's... My family." Pidge said, her tone graveling to show her utter displeasure and embarrassment towards them. 

"They're sweet," Lance told her and squeezed her hand. "It feels very... Homey inside your house." 

"I'm sure your house is like that, what with your big family." Pidge said, her footsteps wide strides to keep up. Curse Lance and his long legs. 

"Oh no. You think your house is bad? Have double that under one roof, and one hundred times more chaos. My house is just Pandora’s box waiting to burst at the seams."

"Well I met your little sister, and she's really sweet."

"She's the Devils incarnate! Don't be fooled by that performance she puts on!" He kicked a small rock off to the side, huffing in annoyance. If only she could see how his youngest sister really was. 

An accident waiting to happen. Satan. Devils incarnate. She'd been called many things, and each and every one described her perfectly. 

"I'm sure she's just a perfect little angel around me, right?" Pidge asked. Lance hummed in response, eyes narrowed as he remembered a particular time she'd stuck a scorpion in his pillow before, and he definitely knew it was her, judging by the cackling that came from only her while the rest of the household tried to find ways to get it outside without being stung. 

"Satan." He corrected while looking at her from the side. Pidge laughed under her breath while trying to tuck the stray piece of hair away behind her ear, but it wouldn't just stay put. His eyes lingered on her own, taking in the soft glow around her skin, her pretty smile, of the little crinkle in her nose she got when she was frustrated about something. Probably the piece of hair at this point in time. 

What the hell did she see in someone like him?

After a few quiet moments, the teen realized they hadn't been talking. She looked over to him to see his eyes already on her, almost scanning her in a way. She blushed, turning her head to look at the grass. 

"What are you staring at?" She questioned. Lance hadn't seemed to notice his staring, but once realizing it, he too blushed. 

"N-Nothing, just... You're wearing makeup?"

"Y-Yeah, just a little."

"It looks nice on you. Not that you don't look nice already. It just makes your eyes stand out more." Lance complimented. Pidge swore her face was fifteen different shades of red at this point. 

* * *

"We're gonna get in trouble."

"Oh please. Matt has no authority to kill me."

The two of them sat atop of Lance's lion, far off from the city in the mountains, eyes looking up through the trees and staring at the stars in the sky. 

Months ago, they'd been a part of those stars. Now, they just admired them from afar. 

"Yeah, but Matt doesn't need authority to kill me. He'll just do it." Lance told the girl beside him, taking in the cold chill with comfort. Pidge, however, seemed to be a little colder than he was. Seeing that caused a strange pain in his chest, one he felt the need to alleviate by scooting closer to her and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. 

"He won't do it." She said, as if his gesture went unnoticed. 

"I dunno. Your brother seems pretty adamant about keeping you as innocent as possible." The blue paladin chuckled softly as he spoke. 

"I can't burst his bubble and say I've seen way too many terrible things up there." Pidge told him with a frown. "I won't, but I guess that's why he's trying. He wants to protect me and make up for all of the danger I was in that he couldn't keep me from."

Lance sighed, hating having to hear the truth. Sure, he'd been through it too. He saw all that she saw, and dealt with the painful outcomes. They had to live with the memories and know not everyone could be saved in the end, but somehow he wished he could wipe those memories clear from her mind. He didn't want her suffering. If someone like him was plagued by nightmares now that he was home, he couldn't imagine how she was fairing. She didn't say anything, but then again, they hadn't had much time to talk. 

"Well, regardless, I want to be a good date and bring back the fair maiden at an appropriate time, so I'd rather not stay here too long." Lance told her, rubbing at her shoulder. 

"They think the movie is two hours long, not an hour and twenty five minutes. That gives us twenty seven minutes to "get out of the theaters" and fifteen more to get home, so that gives us forty seven minutes to just sit back and unwind." Pidge deduced and stretched out her legs, as if proving her point that tonight she would relax, even if it killed her. 

Lance's smile spread wider into his cheeks, which were already pink from the cold November air. His blue eyes stared down at the green paladin in amusement, amazement, a little of both. Typical of her to have her brain conclude all of that information just so they could hang out by themselves like they used to. She'd planned it all out, all so they could sit back on Blue and watch the stars. Some old tradition they'd made out of it back when they were still saving the universe. They'd sit on the backs of one of their lions, look at the stars through layers of glass of the ships observatory window, and think about what their families were doing.

Were his okay? Were his siblings eating breakfast in the morning like they promised him? Probably not. Was his mother wondering why he hadn't sent out any letters within those long few months to update her on what was going on?

Was her mom proud of her? Was she wondering what happened to her? Were her dad and brother even alive at this point?

Did their families even know? Her, Lance and Hunk up and disappeared, never to be seen again. Maybe their families had been notified that they were gone. 

Maybe they were mourning. 

It felt like forever ago since it all happened. Now they sat on top of his lion, simply gazing at the stars and talking about how their week went. It was such a stark contrast, and yet so enjoyable. Then there was Pidge in all of her cuteness, her eyes shining in the dark, especially with that extra bit of makeup. 

Why was she so damn cute?

"Lance..." Pidge called out to him. "You're staring again..."

"Sorry," He apologized and sat back. 

"You keep staring at me tonight." 

"So do you."

"I'm being serious here." The girl grumbled, and sat up. "What, is something on my face or something?"

"No, I was... I was just thinking that you're cute, that's all." Lance admitted, his eyes looking away from her own. 

Pidge's cheeks felt hot from the admission as she sat back, her arms crossing over her chest, almost like it was more secluded and comforting this way. 

“I'm not cute..." She argued. 

"Oh well I must disagree on that." Lance told her and nudged at her shoulder with his own. "You're doing that cute thing again where your brain just so happens to plan everything out before anyone can come close to it, and your hair is pulled out of your face, which makes me look at it and think it’s cute, and you've got makeup on, which I think is super cute-"

"Alright already!" She relented and rolled over onto her side, facing away from him. Lance chuckled and rolled over, wrapping an arm around her side. 

"You make that out to be such a bad thing, Pidge. Why are you wearing it anyway? You never wear makeup."

"I just..." Her chest extended with a heavy and shaky sigh, something the blue paladin could feel with his arm wrapped around her. "... I just wanted to be pretty."

"Pidge, what are you talking about?" He asked with a frown. "You are pretty."

"No, girls with makeup are. Girls with long hair are. Girls with big boobs or perfect hourglass figures are pretty. People like Allura are pretty. Isn't that what you like?"

Wait, was she... Self-conscious?

"Well, yeah, but so does every other heterosexual man in the world, and a few girls I'm sure." Lance sat up on his elbow to see her face, hating the deep crease between her eyebrows and the frown on her thin lips.

She was self-conscious, wasn't she? She was afraid he didn't find her attractive. She was afraid he'd like someone who was more of a girl by Earth standards than she was, because she didn't like makeup, she didn't have a chest, she was short, with short hair, and she didn't act like a different person for someone she liked. 

Well, how could she think that way?

"But I like _you_..." He told her. 

Brown eyes looked up at him, her frown deepening, but in confusion. 

"Why...?"

Did she have to be so blunt with it?

"It's everything you listed that's why. It's because you aren't like other girls, Pidge. You're smart; you so damn smart, and you're witty and funny, and you aren't afraid to just be your nerdy, robot loving self. You don't play dumb for a guy’s affection, your eyes sparkle when someone gives you a problem they can't fix, and all you want it is to be with your family and be happy. Sure, you don't match what society deems "pretty," but so what?"

Her brown eyes widened as he spoke, mesmerized by how openly he spoke, how sure he spoke of it. He seemed so honest, so open, like he always was when he spoke about something he was sure was the truth.  

"I like you, Pidge. Like, _a lot_. A whole lot more then I think you realize, and it's been that way for a whole lot longer than I think you know. Honestly, I'm surprised you're even thinking like this when _I_  should be the one wondering what you see in me."

"Why...?" She asked and rolled over onto her back. 

"I'm just a flirt, Pidge. That's all I ever seem to do, and I've never been very successful in it. I'm not smart like you, so I can't possibly keep up with any of your conversations. You're this smart, talented girl, and I'm, well, _me_."

"You say that like being you is a bad thing." Pidge mumbled. "I happen to think you're very smart. Sure, we don't follow each other, but that's because we had different classes, and who are you to talk about talent? Next to Shiro you're the best pilot in Voltron."

"Do you not remember me crashing in every simulator?"

"Because you were showing off and weren't paying attention. When you really focus and put your mind to it, you can get anyone out of any serious situation. Not to mention you're strong and an absolute sharp shooter. You've got your faults, but so does every other human. You're fine just the way you are."

"So are you..." Lance assured as he found her hand and laced their fingers together. She smiled that soft, sweet smile of hers that was just so Pidge, making his heart melt. 

"We're oddballs, aren't we?" She asked with a small huff of air, a held back laugh. 

"Yeah..." He agreed, his face slowly moving downwards. Neither of them were aware of the sudden lack of space between them until their noses brushed, until Lance was aware of the presence of breath against his lips. He felt her heart beating through her chest, pressed carefully against his, her breathing slightly off.

He was waiting for something to tell him that this wasn't okay, that he shouldn't move any closer, but her copper colored eyes looked up at him, the stars seeming to shine off of them, not backing down, unafraid. Controlled.

They disappeared a moment later, and everything slipped into blackness as he too shut his eyes and their lips met. 

This wasn't their first kiss, but when was the last time they'd kissed? Weeks, months even? Ever since returning to Earth, they'd been too preoccupied trying to clear everything up, be with families, celebration parties and dinners. They hadn't had time to themselves let alone with each other in what felt like years, and even so, they weren't very practiced in it.

They were still so inexperienced. They were both trembling, their connected hands tightening around each other. It was odd slotting their lips together after bumping their noses, and the movements were stiff, but the heat burning in their bellies, the tingling sensation going from their fingertips to their toes, and the sudden feeling that the world stopped around them still felt out of this world. 

That said something considering they had literally been out of this world. 

They separated reluctantly, eyes slowly opening to take in the very similar expressions they wore, although Lance thought Pidge was way cuter when she blushed. He felt he looked weird when he knew his face was flushed, sort of like how it was now, but she wore the expression beautifully. 

A slender hand lifted to touch his cheek, a thumb running just below his eye as she smiled. With it came a relieved sigh from the both of them, tension suddenly easing off of their shoulders. The blue paladin leaned down and kissed her again, eager for another touch of her lips, but the moment was quickly ruined as Blue suddenly jerked from under them. It wasn't enough to knock them off, but enough for Lance to drop his weight on Pidge and make sure she wouldn't slide off. 

"Hey, Blue!" He yelled and looked down at the lion. There was a low rumble, what sounded like purring to Pidge, but she knew the lion was responding to her date. She could even put a voice to the lion if she really tried, in a sarcastic manner no less. "Alright, yes, I remember the rules Matt laid out for us. No touching, no kissing, and no taking our lions out. Don't you think we've crossed all that already?"

"Well, I mean... I'm not pregnant yet." Pidge retorted, finding an odd sense of satisfaction in the darkness taking over Lance's face and running down his neck. 


	2. Day 2: Dank Memes and Prank Wars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had fun putting in some of the pranks I've done on here. X'D

"So, explain something to me." Allura mused, her fingers pulling on a particular tangle in her hair. Lance looked up from his bayard, the weapon in his hand buzzing from its previous shot. 

"Huh...?" He sounded, allowing the weapon to dissipate into coding. 

"I was talking with Pidge earlier," The Altean began, her eyes looking about the robot in front of them fondly, as if she thought of something, a past memory maybe, that was brought about by the gladiator. "And she seemed so giddy talking about something important. She referred to it as a holiday on Earth."

"A holiday, huh?" Lance presumed, trying to think back to when they were last on Earth. How long had it been now? A few months at the least. There weren't any holidays coming up, at least ones he didn't deem on important levels like Halloween or Christmas. So what was Pidge talking about? "I dunno. I don't think there's anything that important."

"Hmm, what did she refer to it as? April... Something? April..."

 _"Fools?"_ Lance finished with wide, terrified eyes, mouth slackened, and skin turning a sickly pale color. 

"Ah yes! April Fools days is what she called it!" Allura mentally applauded their discovery, but seeing the horrified look on Lance's face made her feel like they had accomplished something terrible. "What...?"

"Allura, get down!" Lance suddenly pulled at her arm, yanking her down to ground level. 

"What? Why?"

"We're in danger." Lance warned her as he began crawling towards the exit. 

"Danger? W-What's the meaning of this?" She begged for answers as they crawled. She was alert, suddenly looking about her like something would come out and attack them at any moment. 

"Listen, I don't have much time to explain." Lance told her as they came to the door. "Simply put, every year Pidge and I declare prank wars, but I forgot about it with everything going on. She's ruthless though, and you're in the crossfire so lon-" He stopped when the door opened, allowing a giant overcast of smoke to take over them, followed by a white cloak landing on top of Lance. 

The teen let out probably those most unattractive and girly scream he had ever released as he fought against the cloth, what he thought for a split second was a ghost, finally managing to untangle himself. The thick smoke cleared, but by now Allura had seen the machine behind the door producing the smog.

Not too far away down the hall stood a girl of five feet and five inches tall, brunette hair, round framed glasses, and a smug smile pulling her cheeks apart.

Lance huffed, tossing the cloth away like he hadn't fallen for it, but he had. She saw it all, and that just boosted her ego tenfold.

"Oh that's it," He growled and stood up, pointing an accusing finger towards the girl. "You're dead, you hear me, Gunderson? You may have won the battle, but you haven't won the war! It is on! It is  _so_  on!"

The grin spread into a smirk, Pidge adjusting her glasses to sit better on her nose. It was then he saw the remote in her hand, but whether that controlled the mechanism hanging above them or something else, neither of them were sure. 

"Then let the games begin." She replied and turned away, a saunter in her step as she walked down the hall, disappearing behind a corner. 

"What is going on?" Allura demanded and stood up. 

"You know what a prank is, right?" Lance asked, eyes lingering down the hall to make sure she was really gone. 

"Of course," She replied. 

"Well, it's a prank war." He explained and kicked the smoke machine. "She's declared war on me, but this ain't over."

Just as he said that, the machine ticked. A little hatchet opened on top, something that looked like a hose sticking out. He didn't have time to react before a sickeningly gooey green goo sprayed into his face, soaking into the lining of his Paladin armor. 

Yeah, he figured there was more to that prank than meets the eyes.

* * *

"Huh, Aprils fools..." Keith uttered to himself. 

"Is it April already?" Shiro asked as he handed him a cup of water. The teen nodded his head as he took a sip of his drink. 

"Indeed it is."

"Oh boy..." Hunk groaned, his head slowly falling to the table. 

"What's wrong? You don't like pranks." Keith asked, his lips turning in a smirk. "You may not want to be around me then. I tend to pull a few good ones every now and again, right Shiro?"

"Salt in the sugar shaker is both overdone and a torture, Keith." Shiro remarked, not falling for the look of satisfaction written on his face. 

"Oh no, it's not  _you_  I'm afraid of." Hunk told them both. "It's Pidge and Lance."

"Why them...?" Shiro questioned as he leaned against the table. 

"Yeah, really. I can't imagine Pidge being the type of person to enjoy pranks." Keith agreed.

"You have no idea." Hunk remarked solemnly. "I swear, it's almost like sex to them. They get a high off of pranking each other in some of the most frightening ways I've ever seen pranks done, and they go all out. I'm talking buckets full of fire ants above our dorm room door, or when Lance stuck a live scorpion in Pidge's pillow case."

"They do that stuff?" The red paladin's eyes widened, surprised by the severity of their pranks. Shiro, on the other hand, was too busy trying not to seethe at the idea that it was, quote on quote,  _sex_  for them. They were just kids, and Pidge was like a child of his own. Like hell he'd ever let them think that way. 

"Those are only a few pranks they've done. Pidge stuck heavy duty glue between the cracks of our door to our dorm room, and it froze halfway open. We couldn't shut the damn thing for a week and had to live with people walking by and looking into our room, not to mention I had to squeeze my way through it. Or the time Lance put green hair dye in Pidge's shampoo  _and_  conditioner. It took her days to get it fixed."

"But they only prank each other?" Keith asked. 

"I couldn't keep up! They go crazy and I wasn't about to get involved with their psychotic pranks!"

"Makes your pranks look well rounded." The black paladin said with a finger pointed in Keith's direction. 

"You can't match them, and I say don't even try. You're gonna get hurt trying to get yourself invo-"

Just as Hunk lowered his voice, the bay doors opened, and Pidge came in with a relatively proud hop in her step. 

"Hi guys," She greeted with her usual attitude. 

"Morning Pidge," Shiro greeted and waved a hand at her. "I saved you some breakfast Hunk made."

"Oh awesome!" She beamed as she sat down beside him at the table. "Thanks!"

"Not a problem."

"You're here kind of late, Pidge." Keith said around his mug. "Did you sleep in late?"

"Nah, I was just working on a project." She explained, but there was some hidden meaning behind her words that sent chills down all of their bodies. 

"Oh...?" Hunk asked, his voice shaking in fear. "M-Maybe something to help us with defeating Zarkon? Maybe? Sort of?"

There was an ongoing look of satisfaction in her coppery eyes, a smile behind her spoon as she ate. 

"You could say something like that." She uttered. 

The bay doors opened again, this time a frantic Lance bursting in and making a mad dash for Pidge. She didn't even flinch as he zeroed in on her, face red and... Black?

"Lance, what happened?" Shiro asked, eyeing the suspicious black substance coming from his mouth. 

"Dude, what's on your face?" Keith asked cautiously, like Lance had some alien form of rabies. 

"You little snot! What did you put in my toothpaste?" Lance tossed a squished tube of his toothpaste down on the table in front of the smaller paladin, who was grinning wildly. 

"April fools." She said, trying hard not to laugh. 

"What is it?" Lance demanded. 

"Dude, chill. It's charcoal. Won't do any harm to you, and will even make your teeth whiter, so you should be thanking me."

"Thanking you? I can't get this crap off my sink!"

"Well I never said anything about the sink. 

"Pidge-!"

"Alright, you two, calm down." Shiro told the both of them and stepped between Lance and Pidge. "Lance, go clean yourself up. Pidge, behave."

"That was tame compared to the time he planted a small grass garden between the keys of my keyboard!"

"Sleep with one eye open." Lance warned her, pointing his fingers from his eyes to her own. 

"Ditto."

"Would you two stop?" Shiro berated and pushed Lance away. The teen glared hard for a couple of seconds longer before leaving the room, and behind he left a terrible tension. Everyone's eyes were on Pidge, but she continued eating like nothing out of the ordinary had just taken place. All that could be concluded was that she looked way too satisfied, and they were all scared for their well-beings. 

* * *

 

Picking apart Pidge's room while she was gone felt like a life or death situation. 

For the most part it was clean, with the exception of some half built robots, a recreation of Rover in the corner, and her laptop. It seemed very much like a room that Pidge Gunderson would inhabit, and that's what made it terrifying.

Who knew what these half built robots could do? For all he knew, they were recording his movements, and then the green paladin would know he had been in here.

He had to make this quick. He had to find something to use as blackmail, the ultimate prank, something that would put an end to their two year prank war and claim him the victor. 

He found what he thought he was looking for in the form of a small, brown notebook hidden underneath one of the robots. At first he assumed it was just a notebook with notes on their progress, but reading the first page proved him wrong. 

_"Date: I don't even know anymore._

_Time: Coran said eighteen ticks to seven. I'm assuming that means six forty-two?"_

"Bingo..." He whispered to himself and sat down on the edge of her bed. 

Her diary. Perfect prank material. 

_"Reading over the translations Allura had given me a week ago provided no information to the whereabouts of my brother and father. It was absolutely useless, and once again, I'm back to the damn drawing board."_

This had been dated back further within her journal, probably long before April, given the acknowledgement that she didn't know what day it was written down. 

Skipping ahead to near the end of the book, Lance looked for one of the more recent entries and began reading a few paragraphs in.

_"... I wouldn't want to tell him though. That'd make everything complicated and weird, and I'm not ready to admit my feelings to him."_

Wait.

Back up.

Lance went back a few pages to the start of the entry, reading over the sentences beginning at the start of the page. 

_"Date: Somewhere around April. That's all I know._

_Time: Feels like two in the morning. It probably is._

_I can't sleep. Nightmares. Thoughts. The voices in my head won't shut up for five minutes to let me sleep. I can't... I can’t stop thinking about him."_

There was this voice in Lance's head telling him to stop reading, and yet his eyes lingered on the words. 

_"Why is he so cute? So stupid and cute? Why is he always grinning like an idiot and showing off his perfect smile? Why does he have to talk to me like we're the best of friends, even though I've tried pushing him away? Well, the key word is tried. I've been trying since we met at the stupid garrison and he never left me alone."_

Wait, the garrison? Was she talking about Hunk?

An evil voice in his head said he now had the evidence he needed to pull the ultimate prank. Another voice in his head said that no, that was too mean. Putting a scorpion in her pillow case, coloring her hair pink, and hiding all of her socks didn't seem to push it, but this?

She'd never forgive him, and that’s not what he was looking for. He just wanted to win.

_"Maybe that's why I've come to understand these feelings. He takes care of me. He looks after me. When he has a question, he comes to me. When he needs something he comes to me. In the end, we kind of work well together... I guess. I don't know why. He gets on my nerves, he goes through my stuff, he peaks his head over my shoulder when I'm working, and damn it, every year he's got something that one ups one of my pranks."_

Wait.

Wait. Wait. 

Lance had to read that last bit one more time. 

Was she... Talking about him?

_"Stupid Lance. Why does he need to do that? Why does he need to get under my skin like this? What right does he have to make me feel like this? I was perfectly fine simply looking for my family, no strings attached, and no emotions to anyone tying me down. Now he comes along and... And it's all a worthless effort in the end._

_Seeing him makes my heart flutter. Hearing him laugh puts butterflies in my stomach. When he puts an arm around my shoulder and pulls me close, per his usual behavior, I know I'm blushing. Screw him and his stupid antics. I never asked to feel this way. I don't want to feel this way, and now I do. He should take responsibility for that, shouldn't he?_

_I wouldn't want to tell him though. That'd make everything complicated and weird, and I'm not ready to admit my feelings to him._

_Besides, Lance likes pretty girls, girls like Allura. I’m not enough for his standards.”_

The last words written in her diary left a bitter taste in his mouth. His eyes lingered on the words, trying to make sense of everything he just read, but his mind was too busy trying to come to terms with the biggest point. 

Pidge liked him. She liked him as more than friends. She  _liked_  liked him. 

He definitely shouldn’t have read any of that. None of that was any of his business. He'd only gone looking for blackmail, and now he was regretting it entirely. 

She liked him? He still couldn't wrap his mind around it. Why did she like him? Since when did she like him? What did she even see in him to make her like him?

All in all, why didn't she ever say anything? This was a pretty big deal here. How dare Pidge not tell him about her crush? He had a right to know. This was a pretty big thing, and after all the things the paladin's had been through together, he couldn't believe Pidge would still hide things from him. 

Okay, this wasn't the same as other things. Shiro would throttle Lance, even if he hadn't known, and Allura would pester Pidge for all of the juicy details she'd kept hidden for a while. They were, quote on quote, _space parents_ of the paladin's, and as such, had to protect them. If they knew, the whole ship would know, and Pidge would forever be scarred by the embarrassment and mortification. 

Maybe that's why she never said anything. She didn't want to face anyone, especially him, and that last line...

_"I’m not enough for his standards.”_

She was doubting herself. Feeling insecure. She didn't think he'd ever return the affection, because she wasn't his usual target for flirtatious remarks. Their conversations were witty comebacks and sarcastic comments. They were polar opposites and would rough house with each other, just as if Pidge was another one of the boys. She didn't seem to have any problems with it, or so he thought. 

Maybe that's why. She was so used to being "one of the guys" that she forgot she was a girl, and her thought process meant that he thought so too. He wouldn't like her as a girl, as Katie Holt, but Pidge Gunderson, and that was it. 

Why though? She was super smart, way smarter than he ever was. Hell, she was smarter than any of the people on the ship. What she couldn’t do in fighting she made up for in agility and brains. She could get anyone out of a tough situation just by making some of the best plans Team Voltron had ever used. The amount of times she’d gotten them out of sticky situations? He’d lost count.

She was cute, in her own sort of way. Her with her big, brassy eyes, and round spectacles. Her short stature and brash attitude to match. Her skin was pale, but she had just the lightest speckle of freckles on her skin that one wouldn’t see unless really up close, which he’d do once in a blue moon to mess with her. They were almost translucent, and when up close and personal, he felt the need to count how many were actually there, but her cheeks would turn red and she’d push him away quickly to put space between them.

She had tiny hands. In general she was tiny, so this didn’t come as much of a surprise, but he still seemed kind of interested in them. One time he had gotten hurt on a mission, and Pidge had grabbed onto his hand with both of hers to squeeze and keep him awake. He vaguely remembers the situation, but he does remember a stray thought running through his head about how soft her hands were, nimble even for someone who spent most of her time typing on a computer.

Maybe that was the secret to her softness. She was just a nerd who sat behind a computer, but in a good way. If it wasn’t for her nerdy self, they’d be royally screwed.

Why did she feel so worried about herself then? Pidge was perfect the way she was. She didn’t need to be the stereotypical “girl” for him to like her. He liked her already. A lot, in fact. Maybe even a little more than he himself realized.

It was then that Lance felt the need to close the book. He’d read enough, and he needed to stop where he was and put it away before she got back, and to give himself time to think. He needed to think this over, and he needed to do it not in her room, on her bed, where she could walk in at any moment.

He quickly scurried to put the notebook back where he found it, wedged under her robot. He really, _really_ hoped these things weren’t recording right now.

“What are you doing?”

The blue paladin all but jumped at Pidge’s voice, seeing her standing in the doorway, eyeing him suspiciously. When had she even gotten there, and why didn’t he hear the door open?

“Uh…” He uttered and stood up straight. Maybe he was lucky and she didn’t see him reading her diary.

“What are you doing in my room?” She asked, her hands balling into fists. If she had seen it, she wasn’t saying anything.

“Nothing…”

“That’s such bull,” She argued and moved up close to face him. “What’d you do, huh? What, another poisonous animal in my pillow case? Should I check my toothpaste to make sure you didn’t stick anything in it?”

He had to play along. He had to pretend he hadn’t just read her confession to him in her diary. He had to act like he knew nothing at all.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He leaned close, wiggling his eyebrows with a smirk in her direction.

The telltale signs of a blush crept on her cheeks from the close proximity.

“What did you do to my room?”

“Oh don’t worry. It wasn’t anything as dangerous as the time you stuck two small snakes in my shoes… But I can’t promise it’s not dangerous.”

“Lance, I’m-!”

“A sore loser? Yes, I know, Pidge, but you must console yourself and know that there’s always next year.” He patted her head, feeling her subtle frame shake with annoyance, anger, probably a little bit of both, before her eyes started scanning her room, looking for anything out of place. Of course he’d been careful that, if he moved anything, it’d go right back into its place. Nothing was out of place, and that’d make her all the more paranoid.

“I’ll get you for this, Lance. I swear I will!”

“Yeah, yeah. Maybe next year.” The teen waved his hand at her before exiting her room, his heart suddenly pounding in his chest like it was trying to escape. Why was he suddenly feeling so shy? He’d only discovered a small secret. Sort of small. Kind of big actually. A huge secret even. Something that made him start looking back at the time they’d spent together and making him question everything.

He was in so much trouble.


	3. Day Three: Part of Your AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That university fluffball no one asked for. Based of the Korean drama "To the Beautiful You," which is based off a Japanese manga, which for the life of me I can't remember the name of. Hope you enjoy otherwise. ^^

"So my roommate is... Who the heck is Pidge Gunderson?"

"I'm right here."

Entering his new dorm room was excitement all on its own. He knew he had a roommate, but he wasn't sure who, although he couldn't say he wasn't upset by it. His last roommate had been Hunk, and they were thicker than thieves as the saying went. So all he hoped was that he and his new roommate, this Pidge guy, would at least be on good terms with him. 

He'd imagined what they looked like. With a name like Pidge, he imagined someone tall, probably really thin, but with some definition in his muscles. He imagined some good looking guy who'd probably challenge him into getting all the girls, but that's when they'd share secrets and trade pickup lines. 

What he didn't imagine was a short guy, five foot five to be exact, scrawny, with big coppery eyes covered by round glasses and oddly cut brown hair. 

He was definitely... _Not_ what he expected. 

"Oh, you're Pidge." He said and set his duffle bag down on the floor. He held a hand out, giving his new roomie a chance to shake his hand. 

"That's me," He said and shook it. 

His voice sounded like it hadn’t even cracked yet. He was around his age?

"I'm Lance McClain. Looks like we're roommates for the year." Lance introduced himself, looking about their new room. It wasn't big, but it wasn't as small as his room with Hunk last year. They had a bunk bed compared to last year, which was good. This gave them a whole lot more room to walk around, and to their luck, they had their own bathroom. 

That ever so rarely happened. 

"Seems like it." Pidge said, looking over to their beds. "Which one did you want?"

"Hm...? Oh, I'm more of a top bunk kind of guy, but if you want it, that's cool too."

"Nah, I'm okay with that. I'm not too fond of heights." Pidge said and rubbed the back of his neck. 

Good. This was great actually. They were already in agreement about the thing that usually made or broke a relationship. The ice was already broken. 

"So are you new here?" Lance asked. "I've never seen you at this school before."

"Yeah, it's my first year." Pidge explained as he went back to pulling clothes from his suitcase. 

"Well, welcome to the Garrison!" Lance introduced the school by holding his arms up. "Where the food sucks and classes start at God early hours."

"Sounds very pleasant," Pidge mumbled distractedly. 

"It's all cool though. You can join Hunk and I for dinner tonight. We're going out to this pizzeria in town that has some of the best pizza rolls and calzones a guy could ask for, and then we thought about trying to pick up some girls. Interested?" He asked him as he leaned against the bed frame. There was a small halt in Pidge's movements, as if considering the idea before continuing to unpack. 

"I'm sorry, but I don't really have time for that." He said and pulled a smaller bag out. It looked like something a woman would carry around in their purse if Lance were being honest, but what did he know?

"What...? Really...?" The teen questioned with a frown. 

"Yeah, but have fun without me." 

"Not even if I offered to pay for your food?"

"I said I don't have time." There was a small sound of annoyance in the snap of Pidge's words, like he was really putting him off by simply existing. Lance crossed his arms over his chest, showing his slip of anger at his sudden outburst. 

"Well fine then." He arguably agreed and turned away to begin unpacking his things. 

Maybe this wouldn't go as well as he hoped it would.

* * *

"He's just super weird."

"And him not wanting to do anything with you is what classifies him as weird?" Hunk asked with his spoon in his mouth. 

It had already been three weeks since the beginning of the school year. For the most part, Lance and Pidge had separate classes, and Lance didn't bother to ask him what his classes were. He seemed bothered by his existence, so the teen felt it best to leave him alone. 

Lance and Hunk had most of their classes together though, and every day Hunk would hear the odd stories Lance had to tell. 

The first week was quiet between the two teens. Pidge apparently spent most of his time on his computer studying, but he'd stay up until all hours of the night, and the light and tapping sounds of his fingers on the keyboard were utterly distracting. 

Lance tried to calmly talk about a better studying schedule for Pidge so Lance could sleep, but apparently that didn't work out so well. Pidge had snapped at him for that, like he did most things. He just seemed bothered having a roommate in the first place, so Lance kept his distance entirely. 

The second week in, Lance came back early from lunch one day. Pidge was sitting on his bed, rummaging through that small bag Lance had previously seen. Walking in had spooked him enough to drop the bag, and out rolled, surprisingly, a tampon. 

That was definitely weird, but Pidge assured him it was for a bloody nose, which apparently he was susceptible to getting from allergies and dry air, and then demonstrated it by shoving one up his nose to prove it. The idea itself seemed stupid, but kind of made sense. They soaked up blood, didn't they?

So the following week, when Lance got a soccer ball to the face in gym and had to go to the nurse’s office, he asked if she had a tampon to use for his nose. 

The nurse had absolutely no idea what he meant by that, so embarrassingly he explained why he would use one. She then assured them with an exasperated groan that, because this was an all-boys school, why would there be a need for them?

Hunk found that story in particular very funny. 

"No, it's everything else he does that's weird." Lance told him and crumpled up a napkin. He'd finished far faster with his food than Hunk had, but he also had less food than he did. "I mean even leaving him alone seems to piss him off."

"It sounds like Pidge might have a problem, but I don't think it's you." Hunk assured him. "I say give him some time. He might come around. Until then just stay out of his hair and give him his space. 

"Kind of hard to do that when he's literally three feet under my bed." Lance remarked before standing up with his backpack and his bag with his trash. "I'm going to head back early, man. I'll see you in class."

"See ya." Hunk waved him off before shoveling food back into his mouth.

* * *

Lance shouldn't have been surprised to see Pidge in their room. He was on his computer, per the usual, head tilted to the side before hearing him walk in. 

"It's probably not any of my business, but you at least got food, right?" Lance asked as he set his backpack down on top of his bed. 

"You're right. It's none of your business." Pidge uttered, seeming distracted by what was on the screen. 

Lance rolled his eyes, holding back a grunt before jumping up to his bunk. Hunk was right. He just needed to stay out of his hair. The brunette didn't bother him any, so he had to do the same. 

Thirty minutes went by. Thirty minutes of quiet ticking from the keys to the clock on the wall. Lance spent his time on his phone, watching a movie to pass the time for himself before his next class. It wasn't until Pidge finally stopped typing that Lance bothered to look away. At first he thought it was because of the movie he was watching, because he didn't have his headphones in, but he didn't comment on that. Instead the brunette stood up, his hand holding the back of his chair, almost like it was his support. Lance looked at him funny, but he noticed the almost grey complexion on his face, like he was sick. 

"You okay, Pidge?" He asked. The teen nodded his head, but he didn't _look_ okay. 

"I'm fine, I'm just... A little dizzy." His voice slurred, like sleep was clinging to the edges of consciousness. 

"That's not really a good thing. You should probably go get something to eat. Did you even eat breakfa-"

Before he could finish that sentence, Pidge staggered against his chair before falling to the floor. Lance was out of his bed and on the floor faster than he'd ever moved in his life, pulling up the smaller teen into his arms and shaking his shoulders. He called out his name, but there was no response. Pidge was absolutely limp in his arms, out cold, but from what he wasn't sure. 

He had to remain calm. He couldn't panic. First he needed to make sure he was alive. Pushing two fingers into his neck and feeling a pulse proved that, for a fact, he was alive. 

Okay, this was good. Now what? CRP? Did people do CPR on someone who was still breathing? He never had paid much attention is health class. 

"Wake up, Pidge!" He called out and laid his body down on the floor. There was no response, just very raspy breathing. Why was he breathing like that? Maybe he was sick?

Lance pressed his ear into his chest, but he couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary. He didn't want to take the chance, however, thinking that he was missing something. 

Quickly pulling back, the teen began undoing the buttons of his shirt. He needed to hear properly. He needed to make sure he wasn't sick, that his lungs weren't clogged up with something, that he-

He stopped. 

His hands brushed against the white terry cloth first before he then saw the bandaging around his chest. Tight, restricting bandaging that looked like it was making it hard to breathe for him. For...

For _her_.

Unless Pidge had some sort of pituitary gland disorder he didn't talk about, Lance was pretty sure he was looking at an elevated chest under that bandage. A chest that was basically layered down so tight that he-  _she_  couldn't breathe. 

He couldn't even wrap his mind around it, but he couldn't leave him- no, her. He couldn't leave _Pidge_ like this. This could do serious damage to her body being tied down like that, restricting her breathing. 

He took in a deep breath before pulling around the edge of the binding, trying to loosen it. No use. It was tied tight, and he didn't see where the damn thing started or ended. It was probably in the back with his type of ironic luck.

He left Pidge's side, but only for a moment so he could grab at a pair of scissors off of her desk. He carefully got the blade between the bandage and her skin before cutting, effectively skewing the fabric to loosen it. He felt completely and utterly awkward cutting between her breasts like this, especially while she was unconscious, but he wasn't given much of a choice. 

A few more snips and finally the ace wrap came undone. Nothing revealed itself like he feared, but Pidge let out a heavy sigh in her unconscious state, her body suddenly recognizing the freedom she felt without it on. There were a couple more heavy breaths like that before it all returned to normal, and slowly but surely, as Lance sat there, staring at her face, he saw the color start to resurface in her skin. 

He wasn’t sure how to process this. At least, not right now. His first thing was to calm down; after all, he’d just saved Pidge’s life. Maybe that was an understatement. He didn’t really know if Pidge’s life was at risk, he just knew that she couldn’t breathe properly.

Then there was _that_.

He was a girl? Well, she. Pidge was a girl? Since when?

Again another stupid question in his head, and yet he couldn’t seem to wrap his mind around the idea of it.

He had a lot of thinking to do.

* * *

Brassy eyes opened up to a dimly lit room, her room to be exact. She recognized the ceiling to her bunk after having woken up to it many times before. She recognized the alarm clock sitting on the edge of her shelf, the books she constantly read, and the picture she had framed of her and her brother. She recognized it all, and yet her mind felt so fuzzy that none of it seemed to process exactly what had happened.

Why was she in bed? Hadn’t she been working at her desk only a few moments before? She remembered being there typing away, but then what?

Lance came in. She remembered that, because he annoyed her by saying she needed to eat again. He needed to butt out of her business, but she couldn’t care for that.

How did she end up in bed? What happened after Lance came in? Everything was just so fuzzy.

Sitting up, Pidge rubbed at her head, trying to bid away the headache she felt. She took a deep breath in, trying to relax, when she realized she breathed in fully.

Nothing was restricting her breathing, which hadn’t been possible earlier. She couldn’t breathe earlier, what with the binding around her chest. She also realized that she wasn’t in her uniform shirt anymore, but a jacket that smelled like cheap imitation cologne and food. It covered up her shirt, which was uncharacteristically unbuttoned low and revealing to her chest, which, now that she looked closely, was free.

Reaching into her shirt, she felt around, but the binding was completely gone, leaving her practically open to anyone seeing her girlish figure. Sure, it wasn’t much, but it was something, and it was enough to tip someone off if they got too close.

A moment of panic struck her, her eyes widening as she looked around the room, noticing it was dark minus the bathroom light shining through the shut door.

How did she get into her bed? Why was her shirt unbuttoned? Where was her ace wrap?

The girl was about ready to jump out of bed to get a baggier shirt when the bathroom door opened. The light was bright, making her squint, but it was quickly turned off by Lance, who stepped out quietly. She watched him carefully, pulling the jacket around herself closed so he wouldn’t see anything, unaware of anything happening before he looked her way.

“Hey…” He greeted, seemingly bitter in a way. Pidge swallowed around a painful lump in her throat; did he know?

“H-Hi Lance…” She returned the greeting with a stutter, trying to remain calm in the tense situation. She couldn’t lead on to anything if she wanted to keep everything a secret from him, but the way he was acting made her stomach ache in fear.

He didn’t seem too happy to see her. He seemed a little upset, annoyed maybe. The way he walked seemed a little forced even as he moved over to his desk, fingering at something on it she couldn’t see. Whatever it was bothering him just didn’t sit well with her.

“W-What happened…?” She asked cautiously, trying to sit up from her bed while keeping the jacket wrapped around her tightly.

“You looked pretty sick earlier. I told you to go eat, but… Well, you passed out…” He answered, finally picking up what he’d been futzing with on his desk.

Her breathe caught in her throat.

Her binding. He held it between his fingers, dangling the tattered pieces as if to taunt her.

She didn’t know what to say.

“You couldn’t breathe, so I figured there was something I could do to help.”

“I-It’s not what it looks like…” She tried to reason with him.

“Well it’s definitely not what I expected.” He replied and tossed the fabric into his trash can. Blue eyes glanced in her direction finally, making her feel three feet tall.

Berating. Disparaging. Putting her down.

She couldn’t breathe again, but now the excuse was something different altogether.

“What’s a girl doing at an all boy’s school?” He asked, his tone dark and voice low, graveling.

“I didn’t have a choice.” She told him as she stood up from her bed, zipping up the jacket around her chest.

“Don’t give me bullshit, Pidge.” He growled. “Or is that even your real name?”

“M-My real name is Katie Holt.” She answered with her head down.

“Holy crow, I was kidding about that!” He exclaimed and threw his arms up in the air. “You’ve even got a fake name! What else, huh? You some spy from another country?”

“You’re overreacting!”

“Overreacting? I’ve been living with a girl for the better part of a month!”

“Lance, shut up!”

“No, I’m not gonna shut up!” Lance paced the room, trying to keep his thoughts in order, but this was all too much. This girl was absolutely infuriating to him, and he didn’t even know who she was. “I know I didn’t know you, but at least I thought I had some idea! Come to find I don’t know who you are, or why you’re in our school!”

“I’m looking for my family!” She tried to explain, but it seemed to go right over his head.

“They’re probably back at your house!”

“No, you idiot! They’re missing, and I’m trying to find them!” Pidge went to her desk to get to her computer. She was quick to start searching through her documents, but Lance was already throwing on his shoes by the time she found what she wanted. “Where are you going?”

“To the principal! Who else?”

“Don’t you dare!” Pidge grabbed at his sweater and yanked, keeping him from the door to their dorm room. “Please, just listen to me!”

“Why should I?” Lance swatted at her hand, freeing his sweater from her grasp. “Why should I listen to you when you haven’t said anything truthful within the past month?”

“I couldn’t tell you or anyone! I can’t find my family if the school knows I’m a girl! Look, okay? Just look,” Pidge pulled on his hand, yanking him back to her desk to look at her computer. He figured he’d humor her at least, though he didn’t know what good it would do. In the end she’d leave here, and hey, at least he’d have a room to himself.

Glancing down at the screen, he saw a video clip play on it. A video from an old news clip months before of a mission to Kerberos. Three people from that mission had went missing that day, one he knew as Shirogane, or Shiro as he went by, and two others who he couldn’t remember the names of. Shiro was renowned for his prowess, but they said that the ship went missing due to pilot error. It was a shock to the world.

“Sam Holt was my father.” Pidge told him, pointing to one of the pictures of the other crew member after she’d paused the video. “And Matt is my brother. They went missing on the mission to Kerberos.”

“They said it was pilot error.” Lance mumbled.

“Do you really think someone like Shiro could make such a life threatening mistake? Because I sure don’t.” Pidge argued before pulling up another screen. “I had broken into the garrisons systems, but I got caught before I could get everything I needed. I was right though. It wasn’t pilot error. They went missing, but something happened.”

“What…?”

“I don’t know, but it wasn’t their fault, and they're missing with no answers from this damn place! They’re lying to cover up something, and I want to know what!” Pidge closed all of the documents after Lance could take a very brief look at them. Notes, calculated to the details of the mission from what was stated in reports to what she really found in the garrison’s database. “They caught me before I could get a lot out of the system. That’s why I had to do this. That’s why I made up this secret identity, so I could get back in and find out what happened to my family.”

So he- _she_ , had a valid reason. Pidge- _Katie_ was looking for her family.

This trumped just about every other excuse he could have come up with. Lance figured it was something way off course from what she’d just told him, but now that he knew, he seemed to understand it a little.

It made sense. It made perfect sense why she would do all of this, to go to such great lengths to get into the school, pose as a boy, and deceive not only him, but everyone else around her.

She was trying to find her family. She was looking for answers. If something had happened to his family, he couldn’t say he wouldn’t do the same, because he would.

Although, he probably couldn’t pull off the opposite gender quite as well as she did.

“Please, Lance, I need to find my family.” The teen pleaded with him, grabbing onto his sleeve in the chance he felt the need to try and leave. “I didn’t mean to lie to you, and I’m sorry, really, really sorry, but I didn’t have a choice. My brother and father are missing and I… I-I needed to do this to find them. There was no other way.”

Blue eyes looked at her for a moment, seeing the look of dread and desperation pouring out from her expression. She feared that, with all that she had told him, he’d still go to the principal. There was no real way to hide her body after all. They’d figure it out without a problem, no matter how much she tied her chest down. She was relying on him now to keep her secret for her. If he didn’t, she’d lose everything.

All of the hard work she put into getting here, into playing a boy, all to find her family, her loved ones back, and who knew what other kind of trouble she could get in from this? He was pretty sure playing a boy and being in an all-boy’s school could get her in serious trouble. Getting found out meant way more than just losing her family, although he was sure that it was the least of her concerns. It was only a repercussion to her lying, to her trespassing, and to everything she did to get in. Her false identity, her false gender, even where she probably originally came from. It was all a lie, and it was something that could put her life to an end.

 _If_ she was found out, however.

“Lance… Please…” Pidge begged him, her eyes watering with how long it was taking him to answer.

She had no choice. She had to do it if it meant seeing her father and brother again. Anyone else finding out meant that she’d lose them and everything else in her life.

It’d be all over if he told on her.

“Lance…?”

The boy pulled his arm from her grasp and walked over to his dresser. Pidge stayed quiet as he rummaged inside, quickly pulling out his own uniform shirt and tossing it to her.

“Put this on.” He told her. The girl had caught it easily enough, giving him an odd look, but Lance simply motioned his head to the shirt she held. “Go on.”

Pidge swallowed, feeling like her heart was lodged in her throat as she turned around to pull off the jacket and undo the last of the buttons on her shirt. Lance turned around as well, giving her privacy to put on the crisp and clean shirt. He hadn’t meant to see her reflection in the mirror, and even though her back was still turned away, he saw enough.

Yeah, she was definitely a girl. Not many guys had an hour glass figure.

“Okay…” Lance turned around when she spoke, seeing her with the shirt fully buttoned, head low and eyes staring carefully at him.

She was waiting. Just waiting for him to leave and ruin all of the work she put into this.

“That should do okay. Just make sure it isn’t too tight.” He told her while looking at her chest.

“Huh…?” She questioned with furrowed eyebrows.

“You can borrow some of my shirts until you get your own. Just make sure they’re a few sizes bigger. It’ll hide your chest, so you won’t have to tie your chest down.”

Wait, was she hearing this right? Was he saying… He was going to keep it a secret?

“W-Wait… Really?” She asked, voice trembling with hope suddenly building up.

“Well, if it were me… I’d do anything for my family too.” Lance shrugged his shoulders, hands pushing into his pockets as he looked to the floor. “Just be more careful without the wrap on. If someone hugs you, they’re gonna fee-”

The breath got knocked out of him when Pidge suddenly ran up and hugged him. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders, pulling tight and keeping him close. She had to stand on her toes to reach him due to the difference in their height, and the strain on his neck was definitely uncomfortable, but she was warm. Warm and soft, and smelled like an earthy sort of scent. They hadn’t been this close since… Well, since they met, and he got the chance to shake her hand, but this was on a whole new level that he wasn’t used too.

“T-Thank you, Lance. Thank you so much…” She was shaking in his arms as she repeatedly spoke her gratitude.

“I-It’s not a problem…” Lance nodded his head against hers as he wrapped his arms around her, hands falling on her slim waist. It felt a little awkward like this, having to bend over like this to hug her and for her having to stand on her toes, and yet it felt kind of right. Like they slotted together just right.

“I won’t lie to you again. I swear…” Pidge was still shivering as she leaned back to look him in the eye. He took note of how big her eyes were, of how they sparkled, but he wasn’t sure if that was from the possibility of crying or not. Could have been both for all he knew.

“I think I understand it. I guess I do anyway. It’s okay. Apology accepted.”

Hearing those words brought utter relief to the teen, her body visibly shrinking as she leaned against him, her head resting against his shoulder comfortably. She was still shaking like a leaf, and Lance found it rather surprising that this girl, who seemed so cold and distant before, seemed completely within his reach now. He didn’t necessarily understand what it meant himself, but he had a feeling he’d figure it out along the way. If she was going to be more open to him, he felt there was a chance to actually get to know her, not get his head bitten off at the idea of him even breathing in her direction.

Even now she seemed content with the close, personal contact. He hadn’t noticed when his hands fell to her hips, but she wasn’t saying anything against it. He barely considered her fingers tangled in his hair a very intimate touch, but if anyone walked in on them right now, they would highly say otherwise.

Suddenly realizing that made him lean back while clearing his throat. Pidge startled away as well, her big eyes adverting to the floor in embarrassment while she nervously rubbed at her neck. Maybe it was the dark lighting in the room, but he could have sworn there was a fine dusting of pink along her cheeks as well.  

“S-Sorry, I got a little carried away.”

“No, no. It’s cool. It’s fine. I get it… I think.”

In retrospect he did anyway.

It was going to be a long year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was so hard to write. I did three different prompts before I settled on this one, and when it came to this one, I just wanted to keep writing. I had so many ideas, so many sub plots and side line stories I wanted to add into this one, character developments and silly moments of nearly being caught by others or Lance hiding porn in an obvious place during dorm room inspection so no one would find Pidge's "girl items," but I wasn't going to make this any longer than it is. So then my brain was like, "Just make it into a separate story," And my rational self is like, "Brain, listen here. I've got two ongoing stories, both of which are so close to being done. I want to get those two stories, which I've been working on both for two to three years now, done before ANYTHING ELSE."  
> I don't know. Maybe, when I get time, and if people like the idea of it, I'll consider making this into something more. For now, it's set as just a one shot.


	4. Day 4: Flash from the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No regrets. None whatsoever.  
> Rated T for Teen. Just some cussing that involves that rating.

_"You tell no one."_

_It was a very hallow threat. It wasn't really anything worth concerning one’s self with, and yet Lance felt the need to keep quiet, cover his face, and cross his legs. Lord only knows what the smaller teen would do to him of word of this got out._

_"Y-Yes sir..."_

_Yeah, no one needed to know. It was a secret just between themselves and no one else._  

* * *

"I would have never guessed you'd kissed someone before..." Shiro uttered, surprise evident in his expression as he looked to the red paladin. 

"It was years ago. I was still in the foster system." Keith admitted, his shoulders shrugging, the softest hint of red on his pale cheeks. 

"Who was it with?" The yellow paladin asked around a spoon of green goo. 

"Just some girl. We were like, nine I think. I didn't really know her."

"Look at you riding on the wild side of being a human." Lance mused, his eyebrows wiggling to tease him.

"Please. I can't even remember her name."

"But she was still your first kiss." Pidge's tone was condescending and snarky and she tilted her head back on the couch, looking over towards him with a large grin. 

"So...?"

"So therefore she's important, whether you remember her or not." It seemed the green paladin was adamant about making a point, but Keith wasn't so aware of social acceptability to understand what she meant by it. 

“Oh come on. You can kiss someone and have them not be important to you.” Lance quipped with a sidelong smirk.

“That’s so not true.” The red paladin looked at him bleatingly in surprise.

“It is! I’ve kissed someone and have it not mean something before.”

“Nope.” Keith refused. “I don’t believe it.”

“It’s true!” Lance exclaimed.

“Lance, for all of your flirtatious acts, I’ve never, not once, seen any of them work on any girl we’ve encountered. So forgive me that I can’t believe you’ve ever kissed someone before.” The teen told him before pushing himself away from the table.

The suddenly realization that, no, Keith wasn’t talking about kissing not meaning something. He was talking about thinking Lance had never even kissed someone before.

How dare he…?

“I have too kissed someone!”

“Oh yeah? Who then?”

Lance opened his mouth, very nearly telling him who it was his first kiss had been with before he felt a pair of eyes settle on him. An eerie sensation began to form, chills going up his back while goosebumps arose on his flesh. He felt like death and murder were hanging over his head as he looked from the corner of his eyes, looking to the green paladin not too far off, sitting cross legged with her laptop in her lap at the couch.

There was the source of the murderous intent. Pidge. She was glaring at him, threatening him, warning him that if he spoke one more syllable, she’d shove her bayard so far up his ass.

He knew for sure that was her intent. She’d threatened him plenty of times with that method, and she was a person of her word. She’d keep it for sure.

“Uhm…” Lance’s voice cracked, swallowing a heavy lump in his throat as the anger that once overtook his senses was suddenly struck down by fear. He looked away from her, worry edging into his very being that, if, _god forbid_ , Keith somehow connected the dots, he’d be dead.

She wouldn’t take it out on Keith. He was smart for sure, so he could figure it out on his own if he really wanted to. Just because _he_ hadn’t actually spoken the truth didn’t mean she wouldn’t kill him.

“Hmm…?” Keith hummed, eyebrows raised as he waited for an answer. His hands found their way to his hips to sit idly, mocking the blue paladin for all he was worth. “You gonna tell us or just gape at me?”

“Yeah, Lance,” There was a very dark tone to Pidge’s voice as she spoke. “You gonna tell?”

“You know what…?” He straightened his back, voice shaking like his resolve. “I don’t need to tell you. It’s none of your business.” He assured.

The feeling of dread and resentment suddenly lifted from his back. Pidge finally looked away.

“You’ve kind of made it my business by bringing it up.”

“Leave him alone, Keith.” Pidge practically growled, but somehow managed to keep her tone level enough to ward off suspicions. “Truthfully, I don’t want to hear it.”

“Wow, you’re coming off a bit jealous there, aren’t you, Pidge?” Hunk mused, wiggling his eyebrows at the girl.

“I am not!” She blurted, cheeks turning a dark, rosy red. Lance was glad the attention was off of him now.

“Have you ever kissed anyone before?” Shiro asked, entertaining the conversation, considering he didn’t see an end to it.

“Yes, I have.” She admitted.

“Wha- Really…?” Hunk gasped in shock. He seemed way too surprised by this.

“Yes.”

“Who…?”

“My family and my dog.”

There was a beat of silence.

“… That’s not real kissing, Pidge.” Keith tried to explain. “We’re talking about real kissing. On the lips with someone you like kind of kissing.”

“You’re explaining that like I don’t know what kissing is. I’m seventeen, Keith. I have an idea of what it actually is, and I’m saying it’s the same thing.”

“It is not.” The red paladin was enjoying this bit of torture. It wasn’t every day they got a real rise out of the smaller girl. This was a treat in itself.

“It is too!” She argued and set her laptop down to stand up to him.

“Is not.”

“It’s the same as kissing someone’s di-!”

“Pidge!” Shiro’s quick interruption destroyed the sudden tension in the room. The girl stepped back, cheeks and neck red, but whether that was embarrassment or anger, no one was sure. “Watch your mouth.”

“S-Sorry…” She apologized quickly, her head dropping down. Shiro was still the leader of this group, and as such, she had to follow orders to a T.

Even if Keith managed to piss her off, which was unusual on both of their parts.

“Things are getting out of hand, and it’s late. Everyone head back to their rooms and get some sleep. We start training with the gladiator early tomorrow.” The older man told them all. There was an equally shared groan within the room, followed by everyone respectfully listening and getting up to leave.

Pidge all but slammed her laptop shut and stormed off, anger ever present in the way she stomped out of the room. Lance’s eyes followed her wearily, unaware of Keith still lingering behind.

“Well that was new…” The teen uttered, bringing Lance from his deep train of though. “She really doesn’t lose her anger like that often.”

“You kind of pushed her buttons though, Keith.” Lance reminded him as he began walking towards the door, the red paladin close behind.

“I was just teasing her. She usually doesn’t have a problem when we joke like that.”

“Well obviously you messed with something she didn’t want to talk about.”

“Why?” Keith asked. “She was so intent on me kissing someone. She seemed pretty interested in yours as well.”

The teen felt his cheeks flush, clearing his throat as if to end the conversation in some way.

“Well I’ve kissed plenty of people! I-I’m sure she’s just amazed by the amount of people it’s been!”

“Psh, for all we know, you two probably did it way before Voltron was even a thing.” Keith’s idea was a fleeting thought, a joke just to get one more rise out of the blue paladin. It was only so often when he really could make him panic, and he took full opportunity of it when the time came.

“Oh yeah right!”

He had to pretend like that wasn’t the actual situation.

* * *

_“I don’t get it…” Pidge muttered distractedly, hands futzing with a gizmo he’d fashioned out of some spare parts Hunk had lying around._

_The taller teen looked to him from his book, eyes lazy and hazed by a mixture of exhaustion and pure boredom._

_“Are you still on about this?” He asked wearily, trying to look back at his book._

_If he didn’t pass this test tomorrow, he was screwed. He’d be taken out of fighter pilot class and reduced down to engineer or communications officer like Hunk and Pidge, but that meant he’d be on another team._

_Sure, he and Pidge didn’t see eye to eye, but he was still his teammate, whether the smaller teen liked it or not. He was their piolet, therefor, he took care of them. He was their leader, so to speak, and as such, he needed to keep them in check, and alive._

_“Yeah…”_

_“What even gave you this idea?”_

_“At lunch, I heard some girls cackling at the table beside me. One said she had her first kiss and they were all squealing. It hurt my ears.”_

_“It’s just something important to girls, Pidge. They take in that kind of stuff different from how we do.”_

_Oh, if only he knew._

_“But it doesn’t make sense!” He practically hollered, the trinket in his hands suddenly buzzing, followed by a small click, but besides that, it did nothing more._

_Pidge was the type of person that, when he didn’t understand something, he’d do anything he could to learn about it. If he didn’t get it right away, it frustrated him. Somehow, Lance thought this only applied to science and studying, not first kisses with girls._

_“Why do you need to know?” Lance asked as he stood up, tugging his book with him. He felt like he was beginning to cramp up in his uncomfortable chair, and in such a position, it couldn’t be good for his back. He felt the problem would be alleviated by laying on his top bunk above the teen, who laid comfortably in Hunk’s own bed._

_His roommate was currently at the nurse’s office. Once again, he decided it was a good idea to eat the mystery meat from the cafeteria, and just like last time, he was puking his poor guts out. He couldn’t say Lance didn’t warn him this time, but the teen still felt awful for him._

_“I just do.”_

_“What does it matter anyway? Can’t you just think about the time you’ve kissed someone and make an “educated guess” based off a thesis of some sort from that?”_

_For an answer, he got a pregnant pause. He’d been so focused on getting up to his bed, dragging his feet one step on the latter at a time, that he hadn’t noticed the lack of response until he was lying down comfortably on his bed, silence settling around him. He read maybe a paragraph of the page before he realized that Pidge, for once, was uncharacteristically silent._

_Leaning over the railing of his bed, he looked down to find the smaller boy quietly eyeing his little gadget contently, but his cheeks were so dark and red that it was hard to tell if they were really that red or if the lighting was just really bad by their beds._

_He wasn’t answering. He had a pout on his face that spoke highly that he also wasn’t going to answer either. The way his finger idly toyed with the pieces suggested he had no plans to answer for a while as well, not unless prompted, at least._

_“Pidge…” He called out to him._

_“Hmm…?”_

_“Have you kissed anyone before?”_

_“I mean, I’ve kissed my mom and my dad, my brother and my dog. I kissed my grandpa on the cheek every now and again before he passed away.” He explained, but not without a bit of rambling._

_“That doesn’t count.”_

_“What…? Why not?”_

_“I’m talking about a big old smooch on the lips by your first lady crush.” Lance’s eyebrows wiggled suggestively to tease the boy some more._

_“Well, n-no, I haven’t done that, but I’ve still kissed my family-”_

_“Family doesn’t count, Pidge. You need to kiss someone you like, someone not related by blood. That’s real kissing.” The taller teen assured him before leaning back on his bed._

_There was another pause. This time longer, and seemingly more peaceful. He got farther into the page he’d been reading before Pidge spoke again, this time more quizzical and confused._

_“What was yours like?”_

_“Huh…?”_

_“What was your first kiss like?”_

_The question caught Lance completely off guard, enough for him to read a few more sentences and not remember what the hell they said. He would have sat up all the way had it not been for the ceiling so close to his head. Lord only knows how much he’d have to pay to get a giant head-sized hole fixed._

_“What…?” His voice cracked under the pressure._

_“What was your first kiss like?” Pidge sounded so innocent. So curious. So ungodly pure that Lance didn’t even want to indulge in a lie to quench his curiosity._

_“It’s uh… Well, I mean, the usual.” Lance faltered, turning the page within his book to continue reading, even though he remembered nothing on the previous page. “Like, just lips against lips and stuff._

_He felt so uncomfortable. He would, truthfully, explain it to Pidge in the greatest detail possible to help the young teen. That was, however, if he knew himself._

_He’d never kissed anyone before. The closest thing he’d gotten to kissing was kisses on the cheek to and from his family members. He was as experienced as Pidge was more or less, lacking utterly despite his promiscuous bragging about his ordeals with the opposite sex._

_What was more embarrassing? Explaining the sensations to a first kiss that he knew nothing about, or simply admitting that he’d never kissed anyone before?_

_Somehow, he felt the later was the safest solution._

_“Just kissing, I guess. Nothing special.” He really had no idea how to explain this._

_Once again, another pause, followed by the rustling of sheets. He felt the gaze on him long before he looked to the side, seeing Pidge’s head peeking up from behind the railing of his bed. His round spectacles were on top of his head for the time being, showing off his big, brassy eyes, and curiously looking at him as if he’d lost his mind._

_“Lance…”_

_“Yeah…?”_

_“Have you ever kissed anyone before?”_

_“… No.” No sense in denying what he’d obviously been caught in at this point._

_“Really…?” Pidge seemed more or less thrilled by the news as he began climbing up onto his bed, his head nowhere near the ceiling, unlike Lance’s as he sat up to match his position._

_“Don’t laugh, Pidge. I don’t need to hear it.” Lance uttered, mortified to hear one more person laugh at him. It was enough his brothers and sisters went after him for it. He didn’t need Pidge jumping on that bandwagon as well._

_“I’m not gonna laugh.” He answered, his legs crossing and hands holding his ankles._

_“Yeah right…”_

_“I’m not.” He assured him. “I don’t know. It makes you seem kind of… Human, I guess.”_

_“Human…?” He really didn’t understand what that meant._

_“I guess I mean that, like… People make such a big fuss over kissing and other stuff. If you haven’t done it you’re a prude, you can’t do it too much or you’re a slut, and I feel bad for guys, because if you don’t do it, your friends will just bash you for it. Knowing you haven’t kissed anyone just makes you seem a little bit… Well, different from other guys, I guess…”_

_“You talk like you aren’t one of us, Pidge.” Lance elbowed his side, trying to pass off Pidge’s awkward words as just his way of thinking. Having no idea, not one whatsoever, about where they really came from._

_“R-Right…” He stuttered, his eyes looking to a loose thread in Lance’s navy colored blanked._

_“So then that makes you in the same boat as me. We’re both equally dorky virgins.”_

_“Hey, who’re you calling dorky?” The smaller teen shot him a glare. In response, Lance picked up the gadget in Pidge’s pocket and pointed to it with raised eyebrows._

_“Hmm…?”_

_“Screw you, man.” Pidge grumbled as he grabbed it from his hands._

_“I don’t think I’m willing to go that far with you.” Lance openly joked, watching an adorable blush dust from ear to ear and down his neck._

_“W-What…? Wait, that far? How far are you willing to go?”_

_And now it was his turn to blush._

_“That’s not what I meant by that!” Lance’s voice picked up an octave and caved, causing it to shake unsteadily. “Jeeze, it was a joke.”_

_“A bad one.” Pidge added._

_“Anyway,” Lance interrupted him, just for the sake of the awkward conversation ending. “Take it for what you will. Everyone has different viewpoints of a first kiss. While I haven’t had mine yet, I can safely say that I wouldn’t really care who it was with, nor would I worry about it being so “special” as people say. So long as it happens then it’s fine.”_

_“You wouldn’t care who your first kiss was with?” Pidge asked as he pulled his glasses back onto his face, sitting on the bridge of his nose._

_“Nope,” Lance’s lips popped as he overly pronounced the word, looking back to his book in hopes that he could read at least a few more pages before exhaustion overtook his already meek senses. His plans were foiled, however, when Pidge’s hand covered up the page and words, forcing the other to look at him to question his intentions._

_“Then kiss me.”_

_Wait…_

_Rewind…_

_He had to let that one sink in for a few moments._

_“… What?”_

_“Kiss me then. You said you don’t care who you kiss, so long as it happens, right? Well I want to know what’s so special about it, so kiss me.”_

_Pidge seemed so confident in his words, taking nothing within sort strides. His eyes were practically all the brunette could see except for the soft blush on his cheeks, very pale in the dim lighting on his bunk. There may have even been a subtle shiver in his hand that held his book down, but there may have also been a subtle shiver in Lance’s own self. He wasn’t too sure._

_Was he even aware of what he was asking for?_

_“W-Wait, are you being serious?” He couldn’t help the voice crack or the sudden red hue going down his neck. He only hoped that, because of the lighting, the smaller teen wouldn’t see it._

_“When have I ever said or done anything to you that’s made you think I’d be joking at a time like this?” The teen asked him with a frown._

_“Wait, okay? Just wait. Hold on. Let’s take a step back here.”_

_“I can’t. I’ll fall off the bed.” Pidge’s terrible joke was completely ignored, but at any other given time, Lance probably would have laughed at him._

_“Pidge, it’s not that simple.”_

_“You just said that it’s lips pushing into lips.” The brunette gaped at him in mild annoyance._

_“I mean, there’s more to that though. Like, different stuff. Probably like what the girls were talking about.”_

_“Make up your damn mind.” He groaned in response while leaning forward on his hands. “You said it’s different for guys, right? Or are you just spewing crap to derail this whole thing?”_

_“You just heard me say I haven’t kissed anyone either, so why are you even asking me?”_

_“Because you’re here!”_

_There was a bang on the wall; clearly Lance’s neighbors didn’t appreciate the fact that they were now, undenounced to them, yelling at each other. The tension was still high, but quickly deflated into something less that didn’t involve raising their voices and getting them in trouble. Lance didn’t need their commanding officer seeing them again. He didn’t need to be scrubbing the men’s bathrooms on his hands and knees with his toothbrush again._

_Yeah, definitely not again._

_“Okay, this is… It’s crazy.” Lance assured the smaller teen, his head dropping and hands rubbing at his forehead._

_“So what are you saying…?” Pidge asked him, clearly annoyed with this. If Lance didn’t want to do it, he just needed to say so. Otherwise, they were just going back and forth with no resolution in sight._

_There were only two ways this could end, and Pidge wanted answers._

_“Listen, I’ve got a huge test tomorrow, and if I fail this, Iverson is going to have me on the next train outta here with no one to piolet you guys to-”_

_He wanted to continue that sentence. He wanted to tell Pidge that this test was quite literally his last chance to stay at the Garrison, or fail, leave, and be the laughing stock of the whole school. He wanted to warn him that they’d be stuck with another piolet, probably someone way better than him (Which he’d never admit out loud) who’d probably keep them safe, but he wanted to do better. It was his job to keep them safe if and when they finally went out on a mission, so he had to stay. They were a team._

_He wanted to say that, but Pidge just wouldn’t give him a chance. Not with his lips suddenly pressing into his own, quick and rough, hardly even a second long attachment. It wasn’t at all pleasant and nothing like what anyone said it’d be like, but then again, it’d been done so fast he couldn’t even really create a serious opinion on it. All he knew was that Pidge rushed it, he was pretty sure he nicked his own bottom lip, and that the brassy eyed teen had a dark flush of red going from his cheeks to each ear and down his own neck._

_“There…” He deemed, and Lance swore, even in his shocked state, that he could see the cogs in Pidge’s head turning, debating, calculating, and understanding what the kiss had meant to him and chalking it up as experience. Probably not a good one, but an experience no less._

_“… You don’t just push your lips into someone else’s, Pidge!” The taller teen suddenly blurted._

_“What are you talking about? That’s the whole premises of a kiss!”_

_And once again, they were yelling._

_“No, not like that! You don’t just shove your lips into someone else’s! It’s like, more relaxed or something. It isn’t supposed to be rushed.”_

_“So what? You just kiss really slowly or something?” He’d seen movies like that. Movies of couples and lovers sharing a slow, passionate kiss, but if they were too slow it down, wouldn’t that have been too intimate?_

_“No, nope. No, it’s… Alright, so what my brother told me, is just listen to your body.”_

_“What…?”_

_“When I was younger and curious, my older brother said your body just knows what it’s doing. You don’t have to force anything, just let it do its own thing and everything falls into place. That’s what he said anyway.” Lance explained. His words had gone something like that anyway. If he remembered correctly, which he didn’t, because he’d been seven years old when he asked, his brother had told him all of that and a little more._

_It wasn’t like he could trust the memory of something from ten years ago._

_“So just… Kiss…? Just kind of let your mind go blank and let your body do the work basically?” The teen inferred. Obviously he didn’t understand it at all, but Lance was starting to think he didn’t get it as well. Why did his brother need to explain it in such complicated terms?_

_“Basically, yeah. I’m pretty sure that’s what he meant by that.” He explained it as carefully as he could, but he felt like words just wouldn’t suffice. Especially not for Pidge. He was the kind of guy that needed to get his hands dirty in order to understand something. He learned by doing. “Okay, here…”_

_Lance set his book aside, because there was no way he was going to continue studying at this point. Pushing himself onto his knees, sitting on his feet, Lance faced the smaller teen fully, reaching up to brush some hair from his face._

_“W-What are you doing?” He didn’t think it was possible, but the blush on his cheeks darkened. Dare he think it looked kind of cute on him._

_“Close your eyes.”_

_“Why…?”_

_“Well I’m not kissing you if your eyes are open!”_

_“Why are you looking at me in the first place?”_

_“Well it’s kinda dark in here!”_

_“Alright, then close your eyes too and our problems are solved!”_

_“Fine…!”_

_It seemed that they couldn’t do this civilly, or at least without yelling and pissing off the students in the room beside theirs. Regardless, with a huff of annoyance, and probably a bit of rebelliousness (Because Pidge was still that type of guy), he closed his eyes. Lance wasn’t entirely sure if he was pouting or not with his bottom lip slightly stuck out like that, but he was highly inclined to think that he was pushing his lips out for the kiss._

_He sighed very lightly. Any louder and he’d probably get a punch to the gut. Lance leaned forward, pausing just a few centimeters from Pidge’s lips to really think about this, about what he was about to do. His mind seemed kind of blank though. Maybe that’s what his brother meant. He only took note of how soft Pidge’s skin was under his hand before closing his eyes, closing the distance, and pressing their lips together again._

_It was very hesitant at first. Pidge even startled back at the first touch, but determination made him move forward to keep them together._

_The first kiss left nothing to really build an idea off of. This one was different. The slowness. The tender touch. The caress of Lance’s hand on his cheek._

_The taller teen’s lips were slightly chapped, but warm and slightly damp. Probably from licking them. Pidge’s lips were just soft. Soft and warm and suddenly he forgot how to breathe, noticing the faint taste of leftover Chap Stick, but he was too lost to think of the flavor._

_His heart was suddenly beating. The room felt ten degrees warmer. He felt frozen with fear, and yet his mind was pleasantly blank. Maybe this was what his brother had meant. Just let everything else around him fad and focus on the lips on his own, and damn, that was surprisingly easy to do._

_There was a soft fanning of air against his upper lip; Pidge didn’t know how to breathe through a kiss, and thinking about it, he didn’t either. Breathing seemed to be the last thing on his mind, and yet his head tilted, lips parting for just a moment to breathe._

_Blue eyes barely flickered open, taking notice of Pidge’s face up close. His big, brassy eyes that had opened ever so slightly. Bags under his eyes, probably from staying up late to study. A light dusting of freckles, so faint one wouldn’t see them unless this close. His skin, so warm, soft, and seemingly flawless. It didn’t seem natural for it to seem like porcelain, but he couldn’t find anything else to compare it to._

_The brief exchange in their eyes was cut short. He closed his eyes again and found himself moving in for another touch. Pidge wasn’t as fast to meet him for another kiss, still slightly frozen, unsure of what to do, but he tilted his head, pushing into the kiss once it started._

_His mind was reeling with the idea of the kiss._ Her _mind was reeling with the idea of the kiss._

_So this was what the other girls meant. Well she could definitely chalk it up as experience, taking in the warmth of his skin, the texture and feel to it. She’d always been one for detail, but even as she took it all in, her mind seemed to toss out any and all rational thoughts._

_Just the kiss. That’s all she was really thinking about, and yet she seemed to lose track of everything._

_Pidge didn’t think it was possible to live in a moment and not think of a single thing. Her mind was always running, calculating, planning, and coordinating its next move, and yet she had no idea what she was thinking. Her body was, just as Lance said, moving on its own._

_Their lips parted. Moved and caressed. Pidge’s hands, which, unknown to her, had been holding Lance’s arms, lifted. Wrapping them around his neck, her fingers lightly threading into his hair gave her a little bit of leverage. A little bit of courage and confidence to hold on and see where this took her, if anywhere._

_His lips moved against hers again, the hand on her cheek moving to rest more so on her neck while his other hand, having been in his lap this whole time, finally lifted. She felt the barely there touch of his hand against her waist, up high to avoid her hips and any miscommunications, but enough to make her realize that his hand was straying a little too high. It lingered for a moment before moving up again, and that’s when she realized that he was moving his hand to rest at her shoulder, but its travel would be across her chest._

_No, he couldn’t do that. If he did that, then he was going to notice. He was going to feel it. He was going to notice something on her that made her a girl and not a boy like he thought, and she couldn’t let that happen, even if it meant pulling away from something that she didn’t realize until now that she rather enjoyed._

_“S-Stop…!” She pulled away quickly, stuttering, hands pushing at his shoulders as she jumped back. She couldn’t go back far without the fear of falling off of the bed, so that left him still relatively close._

_Lance was smart though, and human. He wasn’t going to push her limits, whether she said stop or not. He wasn’t going to push boundaries, even when he thought he did._

_“S-Sorry! I’m sorry…” He apologized profusely, his face flushed and angry red, his breathing strained. He may or may not have been breathing while they kissed which was debatable._

_“I-It’s fine…” Really, he hadn’t done anything wrong, and if it weren’t for her secret, she didn’t think she’d mind if they continued. However, she covered her chest regardless, fear striking her that he somehow knew, and that everything she worked so hard for would be over._

_“No, I-I took that too far.”_

_“No really, it’s okay…” She didn’t really know how to convince him otherwise. He didn’t push anything. He just couldn’t know. “I-It was nice. I… I-I liked it.”_

_Pidge thought that maybe, as the silence between them grew and the seconds passed, that her face got redder. He was taking too long to answer, but she feared looking up and seeing his face, his expression._

_What kind of expression would he be wearing? She wasn’t going to find out._

_“O-Oh…” Lance’s voice trembled as the words finally sunk in. “I-I mean, of course it was nice. This is me we’re talking about.”_

_For once, Pidge felt very grateful that Lance was so overzealous at times. It made it easier to breathe when he was able to so easily joke around, even if and when it was hard for him to do so._

_“Yeah. It’s good, a-and now we know.” She reasoned, trying to think logically._

_Damn, why wasn’t her brain working? What, she had her first kiss with a guy and suddenly her brain was mush? Why was that a thing?_

_Now she saw why those girls at lunch acted so stupid. She couldn’t even make a full sentence without a stutter and felt the need to crawl under several blankets and pillows and squeal uncontrollably._

_This was terrible._

_“Yeah, now we know.” Lance agreed._

_There was a sound behind the door. The two teens scrambled as far from away from one another as they could get, as if they were caught having sex by their parents, before Hunk walked in, an empty trash bag in his hands while he dragged his feet._

_“H-Hi Hunk!” Pidge blurted all too quickly before crawling down the ladder to get down. Lance followed simply by jumping down; his height worked to his advantage._

_“Hey…” He groaned, his hand laying on his stomach._

_“You, uh… You okay?” Lance asked._

_“Lunch isn’t settling well.” He replied, slowly making his way to his bed._

_“Can’t say I didn’t warn you, man.” Lance told him, shifting uncomfortably on his feet._

_“I know, it’s just so good when it goes down.”_

_“Can’t taste that good coming back up though.” Pidge argued before grabbing her gadget off the bed. “I uhm… I’m gonna head back to my room. I’ll see you guys in the simulator. Feel better, Hunk.”_

_“Thanks…” The taller teen let out a weird burp, as if food was ready for its revenge, but it didn’t seem that way._

_“Lance…?” Pidge called out to him, standing at the doorway hesitantly._

_“Yeah…?”_

_"You tell no one."_

_It was a very hallow threat. It wasn't really anything worth concerning one’s self with, and yet Lance felt the need to keep quiet, cover his face, and cross his legs. Lord only knew what the smaller teen would do to him of word of this got out._

_"Y-Yes sir..."_

_Yeah, no one needed to know. It was a secret just between themselves and no one else._  

_Pidge left quietly on that note. He was still shaking, but knowing Hunk was there and he was no longer alone helped._

_“What was that about…?” Hunk questioned, a frown on his lips. That wasn’t a usual tone for Pidge to express, even if and when he wasn’t in a good mood._

_“N-Nothing! Nothing at all!”_

**Author's Note:**

> P.S. I'm a person that, when I write oneshots, I can't do tiny ones. I go all out. Be prepared to read long oneshots, even if this one wasn't as bad as other's I've done.


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